AMD’s Piledriver architecture has undergone its next evolutionary step: a push to the 5GHz Mark with the new FX-9590 processor.

Unveiled at E3 today, the eight core FX-9590 is the first CPU which is clocked at 5GHz (with Turbo Core) and represents the final hurrah of the Piledriver architecture which will soon be phased out in favor of Steamroller. But what curtain call it is. With the current flagship Vishera FX-8350 processor running at a maximum of 4.2GHz when Turbo is enabled, the 800MHz jump could allow AMD’s latest entry to compete with high end Sandy Bridge-E CPUs.

While the FX-9590’s baseline architecture remains the same, AMD has integrated their Turbo Core 3.0 technology which allows clock speeds to reach higher levels more often. However, the spectacular speeds on this 32nm CPU will push power consumption to stratospheric levels. The FX-8350’s 125W was already high but it’s entirely possible the FX-9590 will push this into the neighborhood of 200W or more depending on sample variance.

AMD is also releasing a slightly slower version of this mega-CPU. Dubbed the FX-9370, it is clocked at 4.7GHz and sports eight Piledriver cores allowing for performance that far outpaces AMD’s current lineup.

At this point, availability and pricing are the two largest question marks. Hardware Canucks cannot independently confirm this but industry sources have stated these processors won’t be available of individual purchase, at least initially. Rather, they will make their way into the hands of a few select overclockers (expect to see records start falling like dominos) and system builders. We will likely see them in high end gaming computers from Hypersonic, Maingear and others sometime during the summer.

Some will likely be disappointed by AMD’s decision to quietly launch these processors into the prebuilt system market since it is one area most self-respecting enthusiasts tend to avoid. These new CPUs likely have to undergo a highly stringent binning process before making the cut so quantities will be strictly limited which is why a broad-scale launch wasn’t in the cards. With that in mind, gamers may eventually see the FX-9590 and FX-9370 trickle down into the retail channel but not in large volumes.

lol competition with Sandy-E? Maybe at stock clocks but that wouldn’t be a fair comparison. This processor is just a piledriver with a massive OC at stock. OC a 3930k to the max and compare both, we’ll see if they still are in the same league.

AMD Platform is pretty great for the price, and honestly If I wasn’t a Hackintosh guy I’d have an AMD rig for sure, I’d rather invest more on the graphics or higher capacity SSD drive.

For now I’m stuck on Intel platform though. Intel obviously makes some awesome processors these days, but AMD is getting there, for the price you can’t get anything better in my opinion when you consider performance all across the board not just gaming..

this isn’t even there next line of chips, these are just beefed up piledrivers renamed i believe, the real one im amped about is the next line “steamroller” CPU amd is working on, that’s where you will see the big performance gain.

Every time we think AMD is finally going to come up with a competitive architecture it falls flat on it’s face in front of Intel’s steam roller. This is just a boost in Hz, and speed hasn’t been enough to bale these CPUs out of the mire yet. Sound like an Intel fanboy? Not on your life, I’d love to see AMD hand Intel’s butt to them on a platter, but you cannot argue numbers.

Intels i5-3470 can hold it’s own easily with a FX-8350 in the majority of benchmarks and on average trounces it in gaming benches, I see no reason why this might be comparable to anything in the Intel line up priced over $240.00.
Looks like AMD is still betting on Ghz takes all.

something to keep in mind is that, theses cpu’s are, at least trying, competeting with intel’s 2011 platform. And why is that? Cause people running these bad boys are using programs that use all of the CPU (threads) in them. So we never know if by running them as fast as 5Ghz + might do a difference. Let’s hope and see that AMD can compete in that segment.

I’m not sure if I’m right about this, but this is my impression. Call it a guess, not something I believe strongly really…

AMD has managed to hang on partially because they do their best to give consumers the best products that they can release, and offer good price to performance. Intel is significantly ahead in the technological side of things, but rather than letting consumers reap the rewards of open competition, intel would rather abuse its considerable technological and market share advantage to out-compete AMD through dishonest and arguably illegal means, forcing customers to pay more than they should for intel products, and abusing their superior presence and business contacts to make shady, anti-competitive deals. Business is a tough world, but when you have your opponent on the ropes, don’t punch them in the balls and toy with them, and then gouge the public with inflated prices, all at the same time. Maybe AMD would do the same if they were in Intel’s position, but that doesn’t make it right. In the long term, the entire industry and society as a whole suffers when the most advanced companies abuse their power to boost short term profit margins. There are many consequences to this kind of behavior which will come back to bite companies in the ass.

Better and faster tech is always priced higher of older and slower. What do you think would happen if intel lowered prices of their cpu’s to amd levels? AMD would been outta business a while ago cept for video card side.